vs Tigers - Sep 27 '09, 8:15 am

We were back to the MS #6 Ground - the crappy ground.

Tigers won the toss and put us into bat. Faheed and Muneer opened, it was a disastrous start, Faheed fell to the 4rth ball of the innings, the bowler Anand was bowling fuller and attacking off and middle, it does take a while for most batsmen to settle-in early on in the innings especially the openers, I thought Faheed was a little too cautious and was not showing his bat to the ball to the first three deliveries he faced, rather defending with his body, the bowling was a yard or two quicker than what Faheed expected and to the fourth ball Faheed was late on the shot and was beaten for pace and lost his off stump. Faheed has not been among runs lately and that showed today, this is someone who has scored ~200 runs last season, but I am sure he will bounce back and will show all of us what he is capable of, its better to be out of form in the early part of the season rather than towards the end when we get ready for the semis and hopefully the finals.

Muneer continued his form from the last game and was striking the ball well from the word go, Nazeer who was in next called for the second run on a typical Muneer shot and was runout by a foot to a very good throw from the deep, it was unfortunate, Nazeer didn't face a single ball and was runout and thats the worst thing that can happen to a top-order batsman. Sumit came in next and stuck in well with Muneer, they took the score to 35 runs off 8 overs and then Muneer fell - bowled Vasu for a well made 22. Our scoring rate was 4+ an over, but we decided to send Suhail ahead of me to bump up the scoring rate even more I guess, Suhail played one straight to an overpitched delivery, he connected it well got the elevation but not the distance and holed out to the long-off fielder who went backwards and caught it well, Shuja? went in next on the fall of Suhail's wicket but soon ran himself out to a non-existent run, I went in next and didn't want to waste a single ball especially since it was towards the end of the innings, but unfortunately I dragged one on to my stumps to the very first ball I faced (the world crashed around me, its a terrible feeling to get out to the first ball), I should've gotten my eye in and played a couple of balls before I played that shot, but the general feeling I got was to go out and not to waste any balls and play the shots which I didn't feel right about, our idea should've been to play all the 16 overs and the runs would've come, its very important to save the wickets, there wasn't any need for Suhail to go #5 and also Shuja at #6 who is not a hitter (if that was the idea), we were towards the end of the 13th over now and we dug our own grave. Sumit on the other hand was watching the wickets tumble at one end, Sumit was very focused today and his shot selection was impeccable, he hit three beautiful boundaries and ran well for the singles and twos. Mushtaq was the last batsman in and he did well to take the score to 68 runs before he fell caught behind in the 16th over with 4 balls to spare, we were all out for 68 runs - not a bad score on this ground, certainly defendable is what we felt.

Mushtaq and Suhail opened the bowling attack for us and we settled down to bowl a good line and length, Mushtaq bowled one straight and one of the openers went across and lost his middle stump, soon after that Mushtaq bowled a beauty to the new batsman and was caught behind - on a hat-trick, wickets began to fall at regular intervals and the Tigers really didn't look like they were in control at any point of time in the game. They had no answer to Suhail's pace, he bowled beautifully today. Tigers were 38 for 5 off 12 overs and required another 31 runs off the remaing 4 overs - 8 an over was the required run rate, in the 13th over Muneer held a beautiful one-handed crucial catch at long-off running to his right to get the 6th wicket. There were also two runouts one by Nazeer-Sumit earlier and the last wicket by Sumit-me. Tigers were allout for 42 runs and we won comfortably at the end by 26 runs. It was a Fantasting bowling effort after a fair batting display.

Onto 'Thunder' next at GrassLawn Park - 10/3, 3:30 pm.

GO SARFAROSH!

vs Daredevils - Sep 13 '09, 8:15 am

Despite the Ramadan fasting we stuck together as a team and showed our commitment in the game today. Full marks to the bowlers - Suhail, Mushtaq, Shuja and Sumit - Job Well done! We restricted Daredevils to a total of 52, we basically ran through their batting line up and finished with 4 balls to spare - 52 all out off 15.2

Everything worked as per our plan, winning the toss was crucial and we did and we put them into bat, the ground was surprisingly very heavy with the over night dew.

I am sure everyone will agree that our man of the match was none other than our 'Munnu', he hung around till around the 10th over and took the pressure off us under difficult batting conditions - the cracking square-cut for a boundary and the six past square leg was brute force and it stands out in his well made '30'.

Nice decent all-round performance from Suhail as well (9 not out and 9/1 off 4 overs).

There were two brilliant runouts by Mushtaq (mid-wicket) and Adil (cover-point). Both the throws were to me the wicketkeeper and landed on top of the stumps.

Since the ground was heavy with the overnight dew our bowlers used it to good effect, the ball was skidding off the track and we made it difficult for their batsmen.

Daredevils did pretty well to defend their 52, they bowled fuller and yorker length deliveries and made batting difficult for us. Faheed and Sumit fell early, I went in next and decided that I will not get out and give as much support as I can to Muneer who was batting really well. I went in when it was the 6th over and batted with Muneer until the 10th over when Muneer went to clear the boundary for the second time and was bowled after picking one nicely off the middle to put it over the square-leg boundary fielder for a six off the previous delivery. Suhail came in next and batted pretty well until the 13th over when I threw away my wicket when there were 3 runs required to win. I was waiting for a loose ball and got one and wanted to square-cut it to the boundary to finish it off but I didn't middle it well, it hit the bottom of my bat and went up for point to go backwards and catch it, we lost one valuable point there, Shuja came in next and made sure we didn't lose anymore wickets, Suhail hit the winning runs with a boundary and finished it off in the 15th over.

A very satisfying victory Indeed!